Toyota on the hard shoulder

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Japanese public debt is 200 per cent of GDP. Its economy is poised to be overtaken by China. Japan Airlines (JAL) is bankrupt. It is tempting to see Toyota’s defective accelerator pedal as part of the same story of failing Japan.

To do so makes several mistakes. The first is to view Toyota as synonymous with corporate Japan, which it is not. It is profit-hungry, expansive and global, qualities that make it different in almost every respect from Japanese companies in general and the complacent, dysfunctional JAL, in particular.